


Geminids: A Thing

by adara



Category: Inception (2010)
Genre: Eames celebrates Arthur's birthday, Eames is an excellent boyfriend, Getting Together, M/M, Post-Canon, Post-Inception, Progression from casual to a relationship, Rating for Language, armes - Freeform, brief mentions of Dom and Mal, dream husbands, if I posted this in a more timely fashion you could've actually seen the same meteors, in that there is cursing, kind of a get together fic, meteor showers, seasonal fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-18
Updated: 2017-12-18
Packaged: 2019-02-16 19:29:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,100
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13060626
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/adara/pseuds/adara
Summary: In which Eames displays that he is excellent boyfriend material when he discovers Arthur's birthday is approaching.





	Geminids: A Thing

**Author's Note:**

  * For [earlgreytea68](https://archiveofourown.org/users/earlgreytea68/gifts).



> My working title for this was "Geminids" but I am terrible at naming things so there you have it. This bit of seasonal fluff was the result of my theory that Eames is a romantic and that Arthur is both a December baby and keeps all his identifying details under lock and key.
> 
> The Geminids Meteor Shower took place the first two weeks of December. Bits of asteroid 3200 Phaethon decorated the sky and it was marvelous. Due to my lateness in completing this fic you don't have the benefit of enjoying the meteor shower simultaneously with the story. Currently you can enjoy the Ursids now through boxing day, though they're generally less impressive and much less prolific. 
> 
> Standard Disclaimer: I do not own Inception. Not beta'ed. Not brit-picked. Kindly let me know if you spot any errors and they will be corrected.

Arthur has an uncanny accuracy in calculating the length of any respective job, even with limited knowledge of the variables, which is why he ends up being the one to generally field their scheduling behind the scenes. It was a gradual shift from occasional colleagues grudgingly appreciative of the other’s complementary skill set to a magnetic coming together as a they. He and Eames had continued their normal caseload of jobs on their own since the Fischer job. Neither of them wanted to become complacent and their love of dream sharing couldn’t keep them out of the field for long.

They had a rhythm that worked for them just fine before they’d come together on the inception case with Cobb. They’d banter on a job. Eames would lay it on thick and Arthur would brush it off. Sometimes, though, he wouldn’t brush it off and they’d gravitate together for the brief stints that their work allowed and then continue on their merry way with no promises or expectations voiced on either side. Their lifestyle didn’t lend itself to permanent attachments. Arthur was never really sure how Mal and Cobb had made it work though he had a fair clue that it was her sheer determination that it should. Eames and Arthur had a pinch of that determination that was just large enough to keep up their rhythm.

It was Arthur who had first altered that pattern. He had broken his all-business facade more than once on the Fischer job, both topside and once they were under. He thought Eames had been hit in the cab but all he could get out while trying to get them the fuck off that street was to yell, “Are you alright?!”

The relief he felt when Eames had replied, “I’m okay. I’m ok.” was short-lived. Saito was shot, Cobb lost his shit in the warehouse, and Eames scrubbed a hand down his face and looked at Arthur as if losing him to limbo would be as good as dying himself. As infuriated as Arthur was at the position Cobb had put them in, especially with the surprised militarization they’d encountered, he steeled himself as Eames got back on board. They decided to push through it as quickly as possible, try to get the fuck out, and deal with Cobb after.

Cobb’s deception and the imminent peril of the job further flipped the switch for Arthur. He definitely gave zero fucks when personally connecting Eames to the PASIV and even gracing him with a ghost of a smile and a lingering hand on his wrist. It was almost a bit of an I’m going to continue doing my job and ensuring we don’t die so far as I possibly can but, hey, if we do get royally screwed I’m not denying us anything here type of moment. He’d almost said as much, almost.

Eames had altered their pattern of complete the job and bolt once Cobb walked out of the airport. Eames spared him but a disinterested glance as he rolled off, hopefully to join his children. If he never saw him again it wouldn’t be too soon. Maybe it was still the rush and the fear of what they’d just survived and accomplished, that they could’ve lost one another, lost whatever this was before it even really was anything after tiptoeing around it for so long- but he’d waited for Arthur.

Eames stood off to the side, a little ways down, and waited for Arthur to claim his checked suitcase from the baggage carousel. He was positioned in such a way that gave Arthur the option to keep walking on as usual, if he wanted to. Arthur took the opportunity that was being wordlessly offered and they’d shared a cab. Then they’d shared more. It was the first time either of them had allowed whatever it was to be more than banter and blowing off steam on a job. It was a tentative thing, not quite A Thing just yet. It was something.

Then the thing had grown into meeting up at predetermined cities between jobs when they could wrangle it. Eames had been called in to help salvage what Arthur had dubbed as sloppy bullshit three times running, the most recent having resulted in him having to back out of a scheduled job. Arthur had to call in a smug French forger of inferior caliber to pull it off without Eames and he was still a bit cross about it. That last shit show had seen Eames spending a lengthier than anticipated span of time having to hole up in the Mediterranean afterward, frequently switching out the falsified paperwork of his aliases and moving premises. He’d forged some of his best pieces but he had also missed a weekend in Osaka with Arthur on account of that.

Missing both the joint job and the subsequent mini-break did not sit well with Eames. He had complained heartily to Arthur over the phone about the inconvenience of it all. By way of apology, he’d sworn to let any future calls from Mick Ford go to voicemail and fully ferret out the other team members before working with him again. Mick was a terrible point man, missed too many details which resulted in these eighth inning roster changes, and things never ran on schedule but he did pay quite generously when things went well.

Arthur could pinpoint, based on the composition of any team and the barest understanding of the job, almost exactly how many weeks a job would take. His margin of error was usually under thirty-six hours, give or take. These figures were much more concise than the timelines the pointmen actually running the other gigs had included in their pitches, they always estimated short. When Arthur had revealed this super power after an evening in Paris which involved a fair bit of wine, Eames accepted that small offering of a step forward into his life and invited the assistance. He was organized well enough but Arthur was meticulous in his planning.

Eames loved working with Arthur so pretty much any job that had them both and had gone through the Arthur filter of bullshitability went on the books and took priority. Eames knew about where and when Arthur would be about the same as he always had. He’d kept tabs on Arthur, as much as one could keep tabs on a man who did not want to be followed by anyone, since their first job.

Arthur was magnificent in action, a sight to behold. Arthur would work his magic and puzzle piece Eames’ jobs to find the perfect work-life balance that conveniently seemed to maximize their time together both on and off the clock. Their schedule was a finely tuned machine.

***

Last minute jobs did have the tendency to go off poorly regardless of the point man because Eames was usually being called in because there was an issue. Either their first forger couldn’t hack it, the mark was militarized, or there was too little to go on and they needed his signature skills to pull it all together. Arthur wasn’t wrong to label these jobs sloppy but Eames still took them when he could squeeze them in, particularly when the paycheck was worth the risk.

It was the near completion of one such job, once again running longer than he’d budgeted for, that had led Eames to ask Arthur to push back his arrival for their next job. He promised he would get there as soon as he could, how hard could it be to clean up this mess after all. It shortened his prep window but it would still be doable. Eames was an excellent forger and Arthur always built in more than ample prep time, no such thing as being over prepared. Eames assured him the payout on this one would ensure their next outing was entirely on him. He could practically hear Arthur’s eye roll before he hung up the phone. The rest of the team would start as planned and Eames would make up for the lost time soon.

Eames did arrive in San Diego, per his adjusted timeline that is. He rolled up to the address that Arthur had given him in a nice white convertible two weeks after the rest of the team had been drilling away. Arthur raised an eyebrow at the car but Eames shrugged it off with a fly away comment about the last job being certainly worth their while. He got right to work and had seamlessly integrated into both the team and the office staff of their current mark in no time.

Miles Blake was the Regional Marketing Director for a biotech firm who happened to be bedding not one but two wives of rival firms developers seemingly with the intention of pirating some ideas. They’d been hired by the Chief Corporate Developer from Genovia Pharmaceuticals, a friend of Saito’s, who hadn’t discovered his wife’s affair until she had tearfully confessed. She realized he wasn’t in it for her when she found him roving through her husband’s home office. He had pushed for the invitation to her home after a dinner and drinks while said husband was away presenting at a conference. Corporate espionage at it’s not-so-finest.

Arthur had incidentally discovered the second wife and second company during his early research phase. Mr. Blake was a bit sloppy in his trail and was certainly not on the up and up. They were going to find out just what he knew and who was giving him his marching orders. If they played their cards right, they could present their findings to both Genovia and their competitor for a double pay day. The architecture was simple enough and they could likely do it in one level. As a precaution, Arthur had their architect build two. Much like his test run with Saito, so long ago now, that second level would provide them with a cushion to continue the extraction or stage an interrogation.

They were chugging right along timewise until Blake’s secretary let slip that he would be attending meetings meetings for some Marketing Networking group up at Barona. Eames was not looking forward to sharing this news with the team. Arthur, planner that his was, would not appreciate this news.

***

Eames was not overly bothered by the proposed change in scenery. A casino was right up his street and Barona looked to be quite a lovely one at that. Southern California was gorgeous in December. A nice hotel and casino seemed a much more pleasant way to work than their dingy warehouse in San Diego with the added bonus that Arthur couldn’t argue the expenditure because it was being dictated by the job.

Arthur was indeed not pleased by the change. Eames was right that he couldn’t argue the point but he didn’t have to like it either. The team was already two weeks into this job. The timeline was already crunched due to Eames’ delayed arrival and the mark’s upcoming schedule. They didn’t have the two days to lose at this stage. They needed to make sure everything was perfect for this weekend’s planned move on Blake. Every detail needed to be spot on.

Eames needed to keep playing his role to do that. He had to get close enough to Blake to iron out the last needed details for his forge to hit just the right subconscious spots, but also feasibly be in the same location well outside the city and their office setting. It would throw up red flags that they did not have time to dodge if they didn’t have a flawless cover.

“It’s not that big an issue. It’s, what, thirty minutes from here. I’m practically at home there, just another casino. It will be fine. Plus, the exposure to other colleagues at this event will give us a wider variety to choose from if we need to backup our intended play for whatever reason and maybe they’ll be loose lipped after some drinks if they know about his schemes,” Eames stated this as if reciting the weather.

Arthur knew Eames was low key about many things but he seemed to not be keyed up at all at the possibility of being found out days away from completion if this side trip went poorly. The chemist and the architect were on schedule and completing their run throughs. A few days without Arthur on top of them might actually make them more efficient. They were passably competent but far from his ideal assemblage of colleagues. They didn’t work overly well under the pressure of Arthur’s watchful eye and that made them tedious team members.

And so it was that the two of them basically pushed Arthur and Eames into his rental car, said they’d see them when they were done with Blake in Barona, and to please take their time. They drove out that afternoon after Eames’ office hours at the firm.

***

Check in at the resort’s hotel was smooth, they were a floor above Blake’s hotel room. Arthur was able to rig a mic on the screen of the balcony door for easier surveillance. Arthur of course had a cover for Eames being there, perhaps not as flawless as he would like but it was passable. In the event he did need to get close enough for a chat, it wouldn’t make sense for it to be the same work commitment because Blake would surely know who was approved by the company to attend and it was an executive-level function.

They’d decided on a couples’ staycation just outside of the city, a plausible cover which didn’t require too many details. Blake’s heteronormative worldview had seen him quickly backing away from learning too much about the personal lives of any partners who weren’t trophy wives so they doubted he would question it at all if it were to come up. Eames planned on mentioning the delightful heart shaped display of rose petals on the duvet in their room when they’d checked in to help speed up the closing of that topic quickly. He liked authenticity, on occasion, and had actually arranged that bit with the concierge prior to their arrival.

Their presence at the same time as him was to be played as merely a delightful coincidence when they did find the need to get closer to him that afternoon while on a break between his meetings. He did seem to legitimately be working, this wasn’t entirely a ruse to come gamble and golf mid-week though he’d certainly done his share of that since checking in. They chatted briefly about how gorgeous the grounds were and wasn’t the food just superb and of course they’d like to join him for drinks later that afternoon.

After having met with Blake and his fellow slimy marketing colleagues, Eames excused them from the festivities which were quickly moving towards a dinner as well as drinks by begging off for a prior engagement.

Eames wasn’t getting anything supremely useful out of this. None of these people seemed close enough to be of any consequence for the job but Eames did learn what his drink preferences were and the distinctly less tasteful communications than Blake generally used in the office which gave a bit of a window into his duplicitous nature.

It seemed that Eames had not just been playing his part when he said they had a prior engagement. He got Arthur back in the car after they’d had a lovely, if not a tad expensive, dinner at the resort’s on-premises steakhouse. They had a room on site that they’d planned to stay at that evening but Eames insisted to Arthur that something wasn’t quite right yet and he wanted to follow up on a lead. He’d been vague but he had always proven to have good instincts. Arthur trusted him implicitly and so he went along.

***

Eames had driven about thirty minutes outside of Barona to discover absolutely nothing. Unless this lead was the nothingness that comprised the Cleveland National Forest with not another car or building in sight. Eames pulled over to the side of the road and parked. Arthur looked at him in askance as he unbuckled and stepped out of the car.

“Back in just a tick.”

“Eames, what are you—” but Arthur’s question died on his lips.

He hopped back into the front seat with quite a nice bottle of Arthur’s favorite Parisian wine and a small pâtisserie box. He pressed the switch which lowered the roof or the car down and Arthur looked at him blankly, mind trying to catch up to his eyes.

“Eames, what is all this?”

“This? This is nothing.” He said, opening the bottle with a corkscrew he’d procured from his pocket. He looked upwards and with a broad sweep of his arm, motioned to the heavens. “This, though, this is really something.”

Arthur was about to protest that they were on a job and had work to be doing, that they’d already had enough time lost, but he looked up at Eames’ indication. The sky was gorgeously clear and truly was something special. There were even shooting stars.

Astronomy and astrology were not so much of a strong suit of Arthur’s as they were for Eames. Knowledge in these fields helped to add a dramatic flair when you could snark about Mercury in retrograde or sweet talk an unwitting informant by correctly guessing their sign as a conversation starter. People ate that shit right up.

“Geminids,” Eames explained. “Quite visible to the naked eye, particularly in the middle of nowhere and far enough away from the light pollution of San Diego and the resort. However, if you’d like I can have us to the Paloma Observatory in half an hour. It’s just up the road and I happen to know the lovely gentleman who is on-site this evening.”

The Geminids meteor shower was nothing short of spectacular. The two sat passing the bottle of wine back and forth, Eames had remembered the corkscrew but summarily forgotten that fine wine is generally imbibed via fine glasses. With their seats reclined, they looked up to view the show the universe was putting on for them in the sky. Eames knows a surprising amount about this particular meteor shower and gives Arthur a bit of a lesson. It is quite endearing actually.

Arthur enjoys the moments he gets to see Eames lift the air of nonchalant playboy artiste that he wears for everyone else. Arthur gets to see him expound upon topics he loves, subjects he’d researched prior to entering the field. He paints the perfect picture at these times: brains, looks, compatibility. Arthur looks up and points out another meteor while filing away this scene, this perfect moment, in a safe place in his mind.

Clearly the supposed lead was a ruse, Eames knew he wouldn’t have agreed to a frivolous outing when they were coming down to the wire. Suddenly the dots connect in his mind like the constellations above.

Eames had been the contact on this job, had picked the scheduled dates. Arthur picked the team, revised the timeline, and got things well on the way to completion before Eames had even arrived. Eames staying on bullshit job for a flush of cash, this car, the timing, this romantic drive to better see the stars— it was a concerted effort. Arthur can’t help but be touched by the gesture.

Eames had figured out it was his birthday. This was a present.

Eames pops open the box he’d brought to reveal a small gâteau with a flourish of his hand.

“Arthur, darling, I know you’re a terrible workaholic so I’ve taken it upon myself to pencil you in a little time here.”

“Eames-”

“Ah, let me finish. Don’t be hasty. You can scold me for wasting the time you’ve surely scheduled every minute of in just a moment.” He smiled at him warmly, presenting the box to him. “Sorry I forgot the candles, hopefully the meteor shower makes up for that loss. But alas, you’ll have to make a wish on a shooting star instead of a candle.”

“Eames, I am not going to scold you.” Arthur said, his breath catching momentarily. “I was just going to say that I think you forgot forks.”

Eames burst out in a peal of genuine laughter. It suited him.

“So I did, darling. So I did.”

Arthur dug his hand briefly into the pocket before pulling out and aged swiss army knife.

“Well, there’s always this or we can just wait til we head back.”

“Wouldn’t be the most dangerous thing I’ve ever used as a dining implement, but it’s totally up to you. The world is yours tonight, as am I.”

Arthur smiled at that, “Giving me the world, eh. That will be hard to top. You’re setting a dangerous precedent here, Mr. Eames.”

“Precedent, hmmm? That sounds promising.”

“How’d you figure out when my birthday was?”

“A magician never tells his secrets.” Eames said as he reached over and rested a warm hand on the back of Arthur’s neck. “Happy birthday, Arthur. I may not be able to give you the whole world but I can at least give you the stars. For tonight, anyways.”

“Aren’t meteors actually just a bit of burning space dust? Not technically stars, but I definitely appreciate the sentiment.”

They finish off the wine and do actually make a bit of a mess picking at the delicious cake as the sky above continues to dazzle on with streaks of light. For two extremely dangerous men, they’re not overly skilled in dissecting a cake with a nail file sized blade. Eames does not even question why Arthur keeps the small multi-tool on him, knowing the answer will be some sort of scout-like motto about always being prepared for any eventuality. He is cautiously optimistic as Arthur leans in to give him a glorious snogging before they head back to their hotel room.

It was perfectly in keeping with their cover that they should return to their room so late and stay up even later. They check out much later than Blake and are too busy to notice that he had neither noticed nor cared.

***

A few days later, when they had successfully completed the job, they followed through on Eames’ plan for working out the double pay day. They left dealing with Blake and the information they’d extracted firmly in the hands of the corporations from which he’d stolen and plotted against. If they happened to read in the news that, not long after, he’d been embroiled in a great scandal and fired from his position, they gave no indication of caring. The man had been an absolute arse, in Eames’ opinion.

With the payout from this job as well as the last-minute Ford job, Eames made good on his promise to treat Arthur to something nice. He was a bit island-ed out from his last few jobs though it was tempting to take in the coming New Year somewhere warm. Instead, he took them back to Paris. He knew Arthur loved it there and he was rather partial to it as well for all that it held some truly amazing works of art and his favorite apartment of those he kept.

When they arrived in Paris, they took a cab to the appropriate arrondissement. When they’d arrived at the apartment building instead of a hotel, Arthur did not question him. When they’d gone to the third floor walk up and Eames materialized a key, Arthur did not question a thing. Eames disengaged the security systems and welcomed Arthur into his home. Well, one of his homes. Well, one of the many places he kept but never really stayed long enough in to be considered a home.

He’d read somewhere once that home could be a person and wasn’t necessarily a place. He had a small glimmer of a feeling that Arthur may be just that. Already framed up on the wall was a star map from the date of their Barona excursion. Dangling from the corner on a golden satin ribbon was a key. Eames was presenting Arthur with a key. Eames looked at him a bit nervously as Arthur took it all in. Arthur blessed him with a wide smile and kissed him soundly. They celebrated the New Year together in Paris and Arthur could not remember ever having started the year so well. This was another step forward in their something. This was definitely A Thing.

**Author's Note:**

> Gifting this fic to earlgreytea68 who lured me into the Inception fandom with "[Keep the Car Running](http://archiveofourown.org/works/2322008/chapters/5112950/)" and has never steered me wrong. She is an actual gift to the fandom herself. Merry Christmas!
> 
> You can find me on tumblr at [9timesoutoften](https://9timesoutoften.tumblr.com/) where all asks and prompts are answered in some form and very occasionally posted


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